Guide to the Matt C. Huppuch Papers

This finding aid describes the Matt C. Huppuch Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 3482
Accession Numbers: HFCA-01463
Creator: Huppuch, Matthias C. (1907-1984)
Title: Matt C. Huppuch Papers
Dates: 1935-1963
Volume of Collection: 0.5 LF
Language of Materials: English

Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized.

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open to research use.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use: The collection may include materials for which the copyright status has not been determined. See https://rightsstatements.org/page/UND/1.0/?language=en. See also the NPS general copyright & restrictions information.
Provenance: Donated to the NPS History Collection by Charles Huppuch in 2018.
Processing Note: This collection was processed using More Product Less Process (MPLP) methods by Nancy Russell in June 2025.
Rights Statements for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: Matt C. Huppuch Papers, NPS History Collection (HFCA 3482)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Materials:

• Matt C. Huppuch interview in the NPS Oral History Collection, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1817).
• Bureau of Outdoor Recreation Collection, NPS History Collection (HFCA-01787, HFCA-02131)

Biographical Note

Matthias Charles Huppuch was born on October 22, 1907, in Buffalo, New York. His mother died when he was 12 days old, and he went to live with an aunt and uncle on their farm until his father remarried six years later. At age 14 he joined a reserve infantry division near his high school in Buffalo, New York. At 17 he was a second lieutenant.

After graduating from Maston Park High School he attended Syracuse University from 1925 to 1929, majoring in Forest Recreation and Park Engineering. On September 10, 1928, Huppuch married Beatrice J. Taylor, a student at Syracuse University. They wed on the banks of English Brook in Allegany State Park in New York. When the university learned that they had married, Beatrice Huppuch was forced to drop out of school just a few credits short of graduation. The couple went on to have three children: Janice (b. 1929), Charles (b. 1934), and Mary Lou (b. 1945). Syracuse University eventually awarded Mrs. Huppuch an Associate of Arts degree in 1996 when she was 90 years old.

In 1929 Huppuch became manager of the Salamanca Forest Experiment Station (later part of Allegany State Park). He then worked for Jerry Brookings and Sons, a landscape architecture firm in Orchard Park, New York, as head of their nursery department and then general sales manager. When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began, Huppuch was recommended for superintendent of one of the CCC camps at Allegany State Park.

Huppuch moved to Washington, DC as a technician and then assistant supervisor for the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW). About 1936 he was made a deputy assistant director for the administration of New Deal emergency activities and the director of the Recreation Demonstration Areas. He was later named NPS chief recreation planner.

In 1941 Huppuch was offered a commission in the US Army and the US Navy. He chose the Navy and served for four years during World War II. He returned from Pacific Theatre on a troop train in January 1946. During a layover in Chicago, Illinois, he went to NPS headquarters where he met with NPS Director Newton B. Drury about career options. Although he had reinstatement rights, his family did not wish to live in Chicago. Drury suggested he meet with Arthur Demaray in Washington. Although he wanted to hire Huppuch himself, he didn’t have a position for him. Instead, Demaray suggested the US Army Corps of Engineers which was beginning a series of reservoir projects. Huppuch was promptly hired as recreation planner and became chief of a new Branch of Recreation.

Following the war, he became recreational planner for the US Army Corps of Engineers, ultimately becoming chief of the Branch of Recreation and Environmental Management. The focus of his post-war career was creating recreational areas around dam projects. He retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1971.

Matthias C. Huppuch died on February 6, 1984, in McLean, Virginia.

Scope and Content Note

Documents primarily focused on recreation, including Huppuch’s working copy of the 1935-1936 Manual of Instruction for the Establishment, Planning, and Development of Land Program Recreational Demonstration Projects; Fees and Charges for Public Recreation (NPS, 1939); Park and Recreation Progress Yearbooks for 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, and 1952; A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States (NPS, 1941). Some plans include marginalia and pages of Huppuch’s notes. Includes A Summary of the Development of “Shangri La” The President’s Lodge on Catoctin Mountain, prepared by the NPS in 1942. A small amount of news clippings (primarily ca. 1951) and correspondence are included. Conference proceedings from the First World Conference on National Parks (1963) present. One black and white photo of naturalist, nature educator, and conservationist William G. Vinal is included.

Arrangement

Unarranged.

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